Narendra Modi has warned Pakistan about India’s nuclear capability (Image: AFP)
Modi Warns Pakistan Against ‘Threats’: India Has ‘Mother of Nuclear Bombs’
INDIA’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has upped the stakes in his country’s ongoing war of words with neighbour and rival Pakistan – by bragging that his country has „the mother of nuclear bombs“, adding that it was „now Pakistan’s turn to weep“.
By Ciaran McGrath 20:20, Thu, Apr 18, 2019 | UPDATED: 20:40, Thu, Apr 18, 2019
India Pakistan: Kashmir is ‘flash point’ of nuclear war
Mr Modi, who is campaigning as the 900-million strong nation goes to the polls over the course eight days, with voting due to finish on Sunday, made his inflammatory remarks during a rally in Surendranagar in the western state of Gujarat yesterday. Tensions between India and Pakistan were raised in February after a bomb attack in the disputed Kashmir region which killed 44 paramilitary policemen was later claimed by Pakistan-based Islamist militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM). India responded with air strikes on Jaish camps which it claimed had resulted in the deaths of 400 militants, with Pakistan later downing two Indian Air Force jets as the situation threatened to escalate into all-out war.
We have the mother of nuclear bombs
Narendra Modi
Mr Modi, leader of the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said: „We have the mother of nuclear bombs.
„I decided to tell them, do whatever you want to do but we will retaliate.
„In the past our people would weep, go around the world saying Pakistan did this, did that. It is now Pakistan’s turn to weep.
“Those days are gone when India would give in to threats.
„This is a new India and it will strike terrorists well inside their hideouts across the border.“
In a separate development, India suspended cross-border trade with Pakistan-controlled Kashmir because it was being used to funnel weapons and drugs, the government claimed on Thursday, in a further crackdown in the volatile territory.
On Thursday, the Indian home ministry said it had been receiving information that militant groups were using the cross border route to send arms, drugs and fake Indian currency.
The ministry said: „Unscrupulous and anti-national elements are using the route as a conduit for money, drugs and weapons, under the garb of this trade.“
Mr Modi on the campaign trail (Image: AFP)
Kashmir is a Muslim-majority region at the heart of decades of hostility, is claimed in its entirety by India and Pakistan, but is ruled in part by both south Asian countries.
The two countries have almost gone to war over the territory on several occasions.
Joshua Pollack, the editor of the Nonproliferation Review and a senior research associate with the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, told Express.co.uk last month: “The India-Pakistan situation is particularly troublesome because of the Kashmir dispute and the terrorist organisations that operate out of Pakistan.
“There has been an entire series of these crises going back to about 2001.
Disputes between India and Pakistan centre on the Kashmir region (Image: GETTY)
“Usually, the White House, State Department, and Pentagon scramble to urge restraint on the parties.
„Not this time, as far as anyone can tell; they had to figure out how to extricate themselves from this mess.
“That may bode poorly for the future, at least if the US doesn’t make a concerted effort to rebuild its diplomatic position.“
No comments:
Post a Comment